Alaska Airlines loses ‘hundreds’ of passengers’ bags days before Christmas

‘We dropped the ball,’ admits airline

(Getty Images)

Alaska Airlines reportedly lost “hundreds” of passengers’ bags just before Christmas after too many of its workers called in sick over the weekend.

The staff shortage meant numerous travellers flying into Sea-Tac Airport in Washington State on Saturday 21 December were left luggageless.

Passengers shared their distress on social media, with one Twitter user writing: “The worst part of not having our luggage this Christmas is that we were completely blindsided that it wouldn’t arrive!

“Hundreds of us stranded at the carousel after countless flight delays with no communication. Extending grace to your team but damn, this is really bad!”

The shortage also resulted in thousands of passengers being stranded on the tarmac for hours waiting to deplane.

“Two hours on the tarmac in Seattle because there’s no gate! Missed connections unhappy passengers,” tweeted one traveller.

The airline issued a statement apologising for the chaos.

“First off, we sincerely apologise to our guests who endured considerable inconvenience and understandable frustration at Sea-Tac Airport over the past two days,” said the carrier.

“With many different factors working against us, we dropped the ball, and by doing that, created an awful holiday travel experience just when people rely on us the most.”

Alaska Airlines blamed severe staffing shortage during a very heavy travel period, combined with “difficult weather conditions” for the issues.

“We simply did not have enough people to do all the work,” they added. “This caused us not to operate our gates efficiently and kept our aircraft out on the tarmac waiting until gate space opened up.”

The airline said that, as of Sunday afternoon, all bags left behind at Sea-Tac Airport had been sent to their intended destinations.

It warned passengers that the airport is still extremely busy: “There will be lines and issues that pop up. We are determined to do our best in each case to help our guests.”